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Acclaimed Israeli singer Sarit Hadad had agreed to give a free concert to 5,000 combat soldiers from the Givati Brigade next week, but found out from media reports Monday that a different singer would be performing instead.

The abrupt change in plans gave rise to allegations that the decision was instituted to keep women off the stage due to religious considerations under which a woman’s voice as verboten.

The popular news site Ynet reported that Hadad’s performance was canceled because the Givati commander, Col. Ofer Winter, is Orthodox and doesn’t want a woman singing in front of his troops. The allegations were further bolstered by the fact that the singer chosen instead of Hadad is male: pop singer Moshe Peretz. Both performers sing Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, music.

But the army said it was Givati soldiers who preferred Peretz and that Winter wanted both singers to perform.

"The decision about the identity of the artist performing at the brigade event was made in accordance with the preference of the soldiers in the brigade," the army said in a statement. "The brigade commander wanted to consider the possibility of holding a performance by singer Sarit Hadad alongside the performance of singer Moshe Peretz, but that was rejected for technical reasons."

Israel Hayom said that when Winter had to choose among several artists, including Hadad and Peretz, he asked the soldiers who were near him at the moment which singer they would rather have perform and they chose Peretz.But an associate of Hadad’s said the army contacted the singer three times to make sure she could perform at the event and coordinate logistics with her.

"Suddenly we hear from the media that they canceled her show, and it’s really not clear to us what happened or for what reason," the source told news and entertainment website Mako.